Drop in the Bucket
by Random Guise
Summary: My favorite scene from the 1995 comedy "Home for the Holidays" wasn't funny at all. Claudia Larson and her father reminisce in his basement while the family is together for the Thanksgiving holiday, and I wanted to expand the scene a little. I don't own these characters, and I don't even have a basement.


**A/N: A short little extra part of the conversation Holly Hunter has with her father Charles Durning in the basement scene during "Home for the Holidays" (1995).**

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Drop in the Bucket

"Great moment of my life. Great" Henry Larson said, reliving the event. "1969. Ten seconds, tops."

Claudia Larson remembered. She had been a little girl, but being so close to the jet taking off had been a thrilling experience. Maybe if she had thought about it she might have been scared, but all she could think of was that 727 flying to someplace far away with all the excited people inside. It wasn't until many years later when she flew somewhere as an adult that she starting thinking about, really thinking about, the dangers of flying and THAT was when she first got scared; of course, the heavy turbulence didn't help. But that ten seconds as a child was twenty-three years ago. "Just a drop in the bucket" she told her father.

"I wish I had it all on tape" he lamented, and reclined in his easy chair. He didn't restart up the home movies projector he had been watching now that his daughter had come down into the basement; there was plenty of time for that after she left. "I'm afraid someday I'll start to forget things happened, and if I don't have it to watch it'll be lost forever."

"It won't be lost, Dad" Claudia assured him. "I'll always remember that time even if you don't. Just like I'll remember that turkey landing on Joanne; that's not something you forget easily." At the Thanksgiving meal the day before, her brother Tommy had been trying to carve the turkey and lost control of the bird and it shot out of his grip and across the table to land in their sister's lap. Their high-strung sibling had dropped her calm controlled veneer and cursed out everyone in the resulting pandemonium while covered in dressing and turkey juices.

"I wish you would, or at least not mention it to her again. That upset her very much; I think being around us was getting to be too much for her."

"Oh, she needs to loosen up."

"That she does, but that's not the kind of person she is. You were always the brave onethan , Tommy was always the clown, and Joanne was the caretaker. After you two left the house and got the hell out of Baltimore, she was all we had and somehow she got it into her head that she had to take care of us. She wrote up schedules, made lists, always called to check in and it just carried on from there. She forced herself to grow up faster than she needed to, and I'm afraid we just let her. Then she married Walter and he was Mister Serious too so it just made sense and kind of fit in. I'm sure she must have fun once in awhile, but that's not who she is; her two kids are still young and your mom and I aren't getting any younger. She has just as much on her plate as you do."

"Nobody told me about your blood pressure problem she mentioned."

"At least I still have blood pressure. What were you going to do about it? You've got your life in Chicago and your promiscuous daughter..."

"Kitt didn't do anything after all. She's says it wasn't right so she's still waiting."

Henry smiled. "I'm glad to hear that. I know it's different now, but I still think young people should wait. I waited, but then again it was wartime and there were a lot of other things going on."

"I still feel bad about Joanna though. I tried to apologize, but I think it just bounced off her" Claudia frowned. "I wanted to...I don't know...say _more_. But it was just a" she said as she smiled "a drop in the bucket."

"Can you imagine her breaking down in tears and hugging you like a long-lost sister?"

"No" she said sheepishly.

"Neither can I. You made the effort; now the ball is in her court. If we all see each other at Christmas she probably won't even mention it. Your mom will start trying to mend the fences in the meantime in her own roundabout way, like a cat sneaking up on a gopher. Maybe she'll write another letter to Dear Abby."

Claudia gave a start. "So it WAS her letter she read out loud to me that first night. You knew about that?"

"Your mom never said she wrote it, but I knew. The only letter she ever clips out of the column and she reads it out to me - of course she wrote it. Adele worries a lot; that's her job. This was just a way to let off a little of the steam she'd been building up. I'm sure it helped, although I don't think she was too happy with the answer Abby gave her. Don't worry, I'm sure she didn't take her advice either - that's just Adele."

"Are we ever going to be happy, Dad?"

"Happy? What are you talking about? You've been happy. You've been sad, too. Mad, lonely, drunk, nervous, medicated, ecstatic, confused - we've all been those things at one time or other. Each day, each moment is a drop in the bucket. You can't define your whole life around one drop like your Aunt Glady; she's been spending her whole life looking for that one drop that's mixed into everything else. Sure, I look at these old movies and the ones I made like yesterday and I get lost in the moment sometimes. But they all add up to that bucket that is our life, and you have to look at the whole bucket. I knew some guys on Omaha Beach that never made it back; their bucket was pretty small, but each drop was as precious to them as mine is to me and look how long I've managed to get by. You've had some great times already; don't let it stop you from catching some more in _your_ bucket. And if you have some lousy times in between..." he said as he made a scoffing sound "...let it mix in with the good times. Because at some point we're all going to be standing at the end of our lives holding that bucket; I think I'd rather add tears of joy than sadness to it. Tommy and Joanna have their buckets too; let them worry about theirs."

Claudia got up and bent over to hug her father, without saying anything. She stood up a little bleary-eyed and asked "How's your bucket, Dad?"

He smiled. "As full as I can make it, honey; there's another drop there" he said as he mimed holding onto a bucket handle with two hands. "Now let's get you packed so you can get back to Chicago. I'm proud of you, and I'm not worried at all that you won't make it. I'm here if you need help, but I don't really think you'll need it." He held out his hand and Claudia grabbed it as he pulled himself out of the chair before they hugged again. "We'd better get going before either of us gets emotional and your mom accuses me of dementia" he finished with a smile.

The End

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**A/N: There aren't too many Thanksgiving movies to pick from for a seasonal story, but this was one. It may have been primarily a low-key comedy, but I liked the basement scene between father and daughter as the best part of the movie. This story extends that scene a little bit.**


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